Agenda - Council - 04/23/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I This guide responds to the 1980 directive. It replaces the solid waste manage- ment chapter of the Council's Metropolitan Development Guide that the Council adopted in ~979 and amended tn--1-981, lhe Solid Waste Management Development Guide/Policy Plan is one chapter of the Metropolitan Development Guide. GENERAL APPROACH OF THE GU)DE The regional system envisioned in the guide is intended to reduce the region's reliance on land disposal by maximizing the recovery of energy and materials from solid waste and reducing wastes at the source as much as possible. The system would draw on several different approaches to manage solid waste. They include include waste reduction, source separation, energy and materials processing, and land disposal. Waste reduction involves methods to cut back the amount of waste generated in the first place. Source separation involves sorting waste where it is generated so reusable materials can be marketed or processed more readily. Processing for energy and materials recovery consists of methods that transform materials into a usable, marketable product or burn them for heat energy. Land disposal--depositing waste in or on the land--would be a last resort, used only for residual materials left over from recycling or processing. These approaches will play different roles in a new regional waste management system, but all will be necessary to a greater or lesser degree to deal with the region's solid waste properly, effectively and comprehensively. WHAI THE GUIDE PROPOSES The guide calls for halting the practice of burying mixed municipal waste in landfills after 1990. Only the nonrecoverable residuals remaining from waste processing would be landfilled after that date. Processing would include recovering recyclabte materials, burning waste for heat energy and composting organic waste to produce a useful soil conditioner. The plan requires that, by July 1, 1988, generators of municipal solid waste must separate recyclables and compostable yard waste from other waste only if voluntary efforts have not achieved the objectives set by the Council. Recy- clables include paper, glass, metals and automobile oil and batteries. Compos- table yard waste includes leaves, grass clippings and other organic waste from lawn and garden maintence. To make this effort successful, counties, cities and townships need to provide recycling services for these materials over the next three years. The guide would require, by 1986, establishing centrally coordinated programs for public education and participation and for developing markets for recovered materials and energy. The Metropolitan Council would assume the major responsi- bility for establishing these programs, but other groups, particularly the counties and state agencies, would be involved as well. The plan sets ambitious goals for waste reduction and recovery. By 1990, waste reduction activities would cut back the amount of solid waste generated by about four percent. Source separation programs would recover about 16 per- cent. Centralized processing, which includes waste combustion, materials recovery and co-composting, would handle about 80 percent.